FIG. 1 is an illustration of a wireless communication system 100. The system 100 includes a plurality of wireless devices 110, such as cellular telephones, and a plurality of base stations (BTS) 120 which are arranged to provide coverage over a geographic area. Each wireless device 110 is typically in communication with a just one of the BTSs 120. However, there may be some situations where a wireless device 110 is in communication with multiple BTSs 120.
The system 100 also includes a mobile switching center (MSC) 130. The MSC is in communication with each of the BTSs 120, and with the carrier network 140 of the wireless carrier operating the BTSs 120 and the MSC 130. The carrier network 140 may include one or more routers 150, for coupling the carrier network 140 to other networks (not illustrated). Examples of the other networks may be other voice and data networks, including for example, another wireless carrier's network, a land line carrier's network, and/or a data network, such as the Internet. The system 100 may also include a media server 160, which will be described in greater detail below. The system 100 provides voice and data based services to the wireless devices 110. Accordingly, the wireless network 100 provides the capability for routing voice and data between the wireless devices 110.
FIG. 2 is a more detailed illustration of the wireless device 110. The wireless device 110 includes a radio transceiver 210 for wirelessly communicating with one or more BTSs 120 (FIG. 1) of the wireless communication system 100. The radio transceiver 210 is coupled to a bus 250. The wireless device 210 also includes a user interface 220, which is also coupled to the bus 250. Typically, the user interface 220 includes a display, a small keyboard, a microphone, and a speaker. The wireless device 110 also includes a memory 230, which is also coupled to the bus 250. The memory 230 may store code for supporting an application programming interface (API) 231. The contents of the memory 230 may also include one or more built-in applications, and memory space for receiving one or more downloadable applications. One common built-in application is a media player application 232. The media player application 232 is used to play different types of media, including musical tracks and videos.
The wireless device 110 also includes an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) 240. The ASIC 240 is also coupled to the bus 250, and is used to operate and control the wireless device.
Now referring back to FIG. 1, the system 100 may also include a media server 160. The media server 160 would typically be used to support a media download service, where subscribers are billed for downloading target media from the media server 160 to other devices, such as the wireless devices 110. Since many wireless devices 100 are capable of playing audio files, one example of a media download service is a music download service, where each target media may be a musical track, for example, a song or an instrumental track. As illustrated, the media server 160 is shown as being part of the carrier network 140. However, it should be understood that the media server 160 may be located anywhere else as long as there is network connectivity between the wireless devices 110 and the media server 160. For example, the media server 160 may be located at over the Internet (not illustrated), and the network connectivity between the wireless devices 110 and the media server 160 may be provided via the router 150.
Each target media is generally encoded in accordance with an encoding scheme, to reduce the file size of the target media to a more manageable size, and perhaps to support a digital rights management scheme. Most encoding schemes permit the target media to be encoded using a range of encoding rates. Typically, the use of higher encoding rates permit higher fidelity reproduction, but comes at a cost of greater data storage space and longer download times. Similarly, the use of lower encoding rates reduces reproduction fidelity, but occupies less data storage space and permit faster downloads. Thus, for each target media, the media server 160 may store a plurality of encodings. For example, a low data rate encoding may be stored for streaming music, a middle data rate encoding may be stored for downloading to portable music players, and a high data rate encoding may be stored to permit a user to create a recordable compact disc. Further, the media server 160 may also store additional information related to the target media, such as album art, lyrics, music videos, etc.
Over the years there has been a number of improvement made to the wireless communication system 100. In particular, new air link interfaces have been introduced to the wireless communication system 100 to permit high speed data transmission. Additionally, new air link interfaces are being designed to further permit even higher speed data transmission wirelessly. Yet, despite these advances in air link throughput, media downloading services have not taken advantage of the new increased bandwidth. Accordingly, there is a need and desire for a way to intelligently maximizing capability for a media download service over a wireless network.